"Love what you do, and you'll never work a day in your life" - My Grandfather
There is so much more to education then most people think. Education is a constantly changing field. There are always studies being done and new information being found which make education very versatile as well. Along with their discipline, each teacher should have a set of ideals, standards, class rules, and assessments that they hold their students accountable for. As a future educator I feel that it is my duty to not only have these things, but also to enforce them as well with the confidence . Confidence is a very important component to being a teacher. You can have all the knowledge in the world but if you don't have the confidence to be the leader in the classroom, your students will "eat you alive."
Another very important component to teaching is getting your students involved in your lessons. By having an active and engaging lesson plan, you can pull your students into your lesson with your "hook" and keep them interested by asking insightful and engaging questions (not necessarily difficult or tricky questions). In order to get your students to care about what your trying to teach, you need to show and prove to them that the information you are teaching is important and useful. You do this by making connections between your lesson and everyday life. Make connections that your students can relate too, make connections that your students never really thought about, things that will make them stop and say, "Wow, I never looked at it like that."
I also feel that since we spend so much time with our students (some even longer than their own parents during the day) we need to do our best to set an example and be role models to our students as well as leaders in the classroom. By setting a good example, and leading the class with confidence, we can earn the respect that we need from our students in order to teach them. A student who does not respect his/her teacher or a student who thinks they can get away with anything is likely to fall behind the rest of the class. While we as teachers need to do our best to be role models and lead, we also must maintain our position as the adult in the classroom and stop bad behavior and inconsistancy among students.
I wanted to become a teacher because I wanted to share my love of Biology with kids. I also wanted to become a teacher because I wanted to help students achieve and succeed to the best of their abilities. I was fortunate enough to be surrounded with a supportive family, good friends, and a school/teachers that cared about me and my success. Now its my turn to show my students how much I care about their success, its my turn to be a leader, a mentor, a teacher, and a friend to someone.
This I believe, and that is why I teach.
Additions:
After reading The Passionate Teacher there are a couple of things that I would like to include into my teaching rationale. The first and what I believe to be most important is that I want each and every one of my students "thinking like a scientist." By placing my students in educational and inquisitive activities, I hope to give them the tools to become the SCIENTIST in their experiment, rather than just to learn as a student. Another very important concept that I learned about is the fact there is simply TOO MUCH INFORMATION for it all to be important! As a future teacher, I hope to make the right decisions as to which information is most important about each topic, thus giving each topic a "heart" of important information I want students to learn. A unit/chapter/subject cannot have a "heart" if ALL the information is supposedly "important." The final lesson I took from reading Fried's book is that I do not want to become that teacher that says, "Just obey the rules, come to class preparded, hand things in when they're due, and you're guaranteed a passing grade" (Fried, 99). This type of teacher, although seems perfectly normal, is NOT what I want to become. I want to hold my students responsible for more than just handing things in on time and being respectful. I want them to try there best, hand in their best work, ask insightful questions (I hope students stump me when they ask questions, that means there thinking like real scientists!!) and be the best student they can be. It will take more than just obeying rules and handing assignments in on time to get a good grade in my class!
Teaching Philosophy: Rough Draft #1
Sept. 20th, 2009
"Love what you do, and you'll never work a day in your life" - My Grandfather
There is so much more to education then most people think. Education is a constantly changing field. There are always studies being done and new information being found which make education very versatile as well. Along with their discipline, each teacher should have a set of ideals, standards, class rules, and assessments that they hold their students accountable for. As a future educator I feel that it is my duty to not only have these things, but also to enforce them as well with the confidence . Confidence is a very important component to being a teacher. You can have all the knowledge in the world but if you don't have the confidence to be the leader in the classroom, your students will "eat you alive."
Another very important component to teaching is getting your students involved in your lessons. By having an active and engaging lesson plan, you can pull your students into your lesson with your "hook" and keep them interested by asking insightful and engaging questions (not necessarily difficult or tricky questions). In order to get your students to care about what your trying to teach, you need to show and prove to them that the information you are teaching is important and useful. You do this by making connections between your lesson and everyday life. Make connections that your students can relate too, make connections that your students never really thought about, things that will make them stop and say, "Wow, I never looked at it like that."
I also feel that since we spend so much time with our students (some even longer than their own parents during the day) we need to do our best to set an example and be role models to our students as well as leaders in the classroom. By setting a good example, and leading the class with confidence, we can earn the respect that we need from our students in order to teach them. A student who does not respect his/her teacher or a student who thinks they can get away with anything is likely to fall behind the rest of the class. While we as teachers need to do our best to be role models and lead, we also must maintain our position as the adult in the classroom and stop bad behavior and inconsistancy among students.
I wanted to become a teacher because I wanted to share my love of Biology with kids. I also wanted to become a teacher because I wanted to help students achieve and succeed to the best of their abilities. I was fortunate enough to be surrounded with a supportive family, good friends, and a school/teachers that cared about me and my success. Now its my turn to show my students how much I care about their success, its my turn to be a leader, a mentor, a teacher, and a friend to someone.
This I believe, and that is why I teach.
Additions:
After reading The Passionate Teacher there are a couple of things that I would like to include into my teaching rationale. The first and what I believe to be most important is that I want each and every one of my students "thinking like a scientist." By placing my students in educational and inquisitive activities, I hope to give them the tools to become the SCIENTIST in their experiment, rather than just to learn as a student. Another very important concept that I learned about is the fact there is simply TOO MUCH INFORMATION for it all to be important! As a future teacher, I hope to make the right decisions as to which information is most important about each topic, thus giving each topic a "heart" of important information I want students to learn. A unit/chapter/subject cannot have a "heart" if ALL the information is supposedly "important." The final lesson I took from reading Fried's book is that I do not want to become that teacher that says, "Just obey the rules, come to class preparded, hand things in when they're due, and you're guaranteed a passing grade" (Fried, 99). This type of teacher, although seems perfectly normal, is NOT what I want to become. I want to hold my students responsible for more than just handing things in on time and being respectful. I want them to try there best, hand in their best work, ask insightful questions (I hope students stump me when they ask questions, that means there thinking like real scientists!!) and be the best student they can be. It will take more than just obeying rules and handing assignments in on time to get a good grade in my class!
This I believe, and that is why I teach.
Amen :-) -